diff --git a/src/qt/CMakeLists.txt b/src/qt/CMakeLists.txt
index 87a5a2bef3b..ad858400a81 100644
--- a/src/qt/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/qt/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -245,13 +245,7 @@ if(qt_lib_type STREQUAL "STATIC_LIBRARY")
   )
 endif()
 
-file(GLOB ts_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} locale/*.ts)
-set_source_files_properties(${ts_files} PROPERTIES OUTPUT_LOCATION ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/locale)
-if(Qt6_VERSION VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 6.7)
-  qt6_add_lrelease(TS_FILES ${ts_files} OPTIONS -silent)
-else()
-  qt6_add_lrelease(bitcoinqt TS_FILES ${ts_files} OPTIONS -silent)
-endif()
+add_subdirectory(locale)
 
 add_executable(bitcoin-qt
   main.cpp
diff --git a/src/qt/locale/CMakeLists.txt b/src/qt/locale/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7f46349d7be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/qt/locale/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2025-present The Bitcoin Core developers
+# Distributed under the MIT software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or https://opensource.org/license/mit/.
+
+file(GLOB ts_files RELATIVE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR} "*.ts")
+
+if(Qt6_VERSION VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 6.7)
+  qt6_add_lrelease(TS_FILES ${ts_files} LRELEASE_TARGET bitcoinqt_lrelease OPTIONS -silent)
+else()
+  qt6_add_lrelease(bitcoinqt TS_FILES ${ts_files} OPTIONS -silent)
+endif()
+
+add_dependencies(bitcoinqt bitcoinqt_lrelease)